Midnight Syndicate debuts new Halloween Music Video ‘Dark Legacy’
featuring clips from their upcoming ‘The Dead Matter’ movie
Cleveland, Ohio (April 30, 2010)- The Gothic Halloween music group Midnight Syndicate has released their first official music video, ‘Dark Legacy.’ The video showcases the song ‘Dark Legacy’ from their ‘Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates’ CD as well as clips from the upcoming dark fantasy vampire/zombie film, ‘The Dead Matter.’ ‘The Dead Matter’ movie which stars genre favorites Andrew Divoff, Jason Carter, and Tom Savini will be released on DVD July 30,2010.
Produced as a part of Midnight Syndicate’s 13th Anniversary celebration, the video marks the first time band mates Gavin Goszka and Edward Douglas have performed together live. Also featured in the video are fellow Cleveland music icons Jeff Hatrix and Tom ‘Schmotz’ from the heavy metal band Mushroomhead.
The video was directed by David ‘House’ Greathouse whose music videos for Mushroomhead won him MTV2’s ‘Headbangers Ball Best Music Video of 2007’ award and a spot on the new ‘Saw VI’ DVD. Robert Kurtzman (creator of ‘From Dusk Till Dawn,’ ‘Wishmaster’) and his company Precinct 13 Entertainment co-produced the video which will also be included as an extra feature on ‘The Dead Matter’ DVD.
‘Dark Legacy’ was shot at the historic and reputedly haunted Phantasy Theatre in Lakewood Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
About Midnight Syndicate:
Midnight Syndicate has been creating instrumental Halloween music and gothic horror fantasy soundtrack CDs for the past thirteen years. The group’s music has become a staple of the Halloween season as well as a favorite in the haunted house, amusement park, role-playing game, and gothic music industries. From Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights and Hugh Hefner’s Halloween parties to Monday Night Football, X-Box games, the classic ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ roleplaying game, and Barbara Walters specials, the music is designed to take listeners on a musical journey into their imagination.
About ‘The Dead Matter’ movie:
A guilt-ridden young woman desperate to contact her deceased brother discovers a powerful ancient relic that controls the dead. Her dark obsession drags her into the tangled world of two warring vampire lords (Andrew Divoff of ‘Lost,’ ‘Wishmaster’ and Tom Savini of ‘Friday the 13th,’ ‘Dawn of the Dead’) each with his own sinister plans for the artifact and a vampire hunter (Jason Carter of ‘Babylon 5’) who will stop at nothing to destroy it.
Inspired by ‘Tales From the Crypt,’ and classic Universal and Hammer horror films, this chilling dark fantasy co-produced by Robert Kurtzman (creator of ‘From Dusk Till Dawn,’ KNB FX) features a haunting score by gothic Halloween music composers, Midnight Syndicate. It’s a mix of classic horror themes with modern twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
AOL Radio has just released a list of the Top 10 Best Halloween Music CDs as ranked by AOL/CBS Radio listeners. In the company of such greats as The Exorcist soundtrack and Rob Zombie, three of the ten CDs were Midnight Syndicate discs (Born of the Night #8, Realm of Shadows #4, and Vampyre #3), ranking only behind Danny Elfman’s Nightmare Before Christmas and John Carpenter’s classic Halloween soundtrack.
Vampyre and Out of the Darkness (a collection of the best music from Born and Realm) are currently available at your local Halloween retailer – see below!
Midnight Syndicate CDs in stores nationwide this Halloween season!
Midnight Syndicate and Van Helsing’s Curse CDs are now available at your local Halloween retailer. To find the store nearest you, visit our Store Locator or shop online at the Midnight Syndicate Store.
Whether you like em’ gory or silly, chances are you have some favorite “scary movies”. The ones you break out every Halloween season or just when you need a freaky mid-year fix. The ones that chill your blood and/or make you roar with laughter. We’ve already shared our favorites in the Top Scary Movie list, and now it’s your turn.
Dredge up all your spooky favorites then head over to the Top Scary Movies comments section. Don’t see your favorite movie listed yet? In about 2-4 sentences, let everyone know which scary movies are your favorite. We’ll add your reviews and the list will just keep getting better. With the Halloween rush almost upon us, we’ll be up to our eyeballs in creating new projects and contests for you; scary movie lovers everywhere (us included) could really use your expertise!
I love horror movies. Always have. From the time I was old enough to watch them (which was a lot younger then I would admit to my parents). As I got older I came to appreciate the classics as well as some of the new ones that came out. However, as a young man I came to the impression that women in these films weren’t good for much more than running, screaming, falling down, and dying. Well, they could take their shirts off in just about every 80’s horror movie out there, but aside from that there were, and still are, a lack of strong female characters.
As a social justice educator I tend to look at horror movies and the women in them in a bit of a different way then I did as a kid. I found something out as an adult, women like horror movies too. And as women, I can only imagine that they have a unique view of the horror genre.
The issue that many people in the social justice fields have, as well as women and men who are devoted to feminism, is the sexualization of violence in horror movies. If you have sex in a horror film, you’re dead. We all know that. It’s the way that the violence immediately proceeds the sexual act or during that has people troubled. It can have psychological consequences for impressionable young people. As I have said, I love horror movies, the gorier the better on some occasions, but I still question the need for the sexualization of it all. The horror movie industry finally caught on to the fact that their R ratings were getting their movies exposed to too small an audience, and so with no TNA and a PG-13 rating the industry opened the door for a whole new fan base. The newer movies have made a positive move away from the sexualization of the violence, which is good.
Anyway, my favorite movies had very little sexualization of violence in them. Dawn of the Dead is an anti consumerism piece. Night of the Living Dead is a statement on human relations and how we treat each other. They still have all the splatter, and the women seem to have more powerful places in the films. The 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead has the heroine cast as a toughened survivor. In the Dawn of the Dead remake the main character is a strong woman. Resident Evil has a woman at the helm.
Which leads me to another subject, that is happily making progress due to not only “girl power”, but feminism too, and that is the role of the woman in the horror film. As I said, growing up I watched countless screaming, running, half naked women get slaughtered by the bad guy. Then one day I sat down with my dad and watched a movie that changed my view of women in horror movies forever. The movie was Alien. (If you haven’t seen Alien, then why are you on a Halloween site to begin with?) If you have, then you know what I am talking about. Sigourney Weaver changed my whole concept of women as leads in horror films. Sigourney Weaver plays Eleanor Ripley. Ripley didn’t scream, Ripley didn’t cower in a corner crying, Ripley didn’t fall down running, Ripley just kicked ass. Ripley didn’t need a male hero to come save her. Even in Aliens, which has a slight romantic interest for Ripley she still put his broken down butt on a ship while she went to save the day. If I want my daughter to watch a horror movie that conveys strength in women I will pop in a copy of any of the Alien titles.
So what to do? Obviously I can’t condone the stopping of watching horror movies. That would be absurd, not to mention boring. What we need to do is educate ourselves on the subject. We can be the responsible watchers of horror movies who understand the consequences of violence against women in our society and demand better female role models in horror films.We need more Ripleys, we need more women in horror films that can kick just as much butt as their male counter parts. If a woman is gonna get snuffed out for being stupid, then the same needs to happen to the men in the story. Why does the man get to go down swinging, while the women has to go down screaming?
With all of the women fans of this genre we need to offer them more. Scream Queens are great, but unless they are giving a war cry while doing battle with the bad guy, is that the message we want to convey? If the guys reading this want their girlfriends/partners to sit down with them and watch more horror flicks with us then maybe we need to demand a horror movie that caters to both of the genders.
In conclusion, I know that there are many people out there who are going to point out examples of horror movies aside from the ones that I mentioned as an example that I am off base. This is what is referred to as “The example illustrates the point.” The fact that you can point out a handful (or if you do enough research perhaps more) of movies that go against the grain just proves that they stand out, or else they wouldn’t be examples. I am certainly not an expert on horror films, or at least not to the standards of many. I do however, have better than a passing knowledge of social justice issues, which is why I wrote this. I still watch Alien Resurrection every time it comes on TV. And my favorite baddie of all time is Freddy. That one can be a bit hypocritical I admit. I actually stood up in the movie theater at the end of Freddy vs Jason and yelled “Oh, bulls***!” With all of that in mind though, I still like to see a woman on the screen who kicks butt. A heroine who breaks through the gender classifications and helps the hero up right before he gets hacked to bits. The Ripleys (Alien movies…duh!), Alices (Resident Evil), and Anas (Dawn of the Dead) are the start of something brilliant. Hopefully we will see more of them in the future. And hopefully one of them will be wielding a sharp instrument with which to decapitate the un-dead. Later.
This butt-kicking article is courtesy of guest writerRick Baumgartle, a social justice educator. You can read more at his blogwww.sorenkb.blogspot.com. Interested in writing for 365 Halloween? Email us!
Since Halloween falls on a Wednesday, we might be tempted to throw in the towel after the last weekend of partying and spend the next few days thinking ahead to other holidays. That’s just crazy talk.We’ve got 3 more days to cram in as many Halloween themed events and entertainment as possible. Memories and inspiration from these final October days will help tide you over when Halloween 2008 is months away. Let’s soak up the last bits of creepy fun before the holiday zombies take over and things get all cheery.
For a really wide variety of events, GooGhoul and Eventful are the places to start. Citysearch and Cityguide are also useful resources, but with these last 2 sites look for “Guides” to Halloween rather than listings for individual events. It’s much easier to actually find a great event that way.
Haunted Attractions range from amateur haunts in your neighbors front yard to huge haunted mazes created by the pros. Major cities usually have a handful of options, but smaller towns also have their share of events, too. Check your options by visiting HauntedHouse.com and HauntedHouses.com. (There are plenty of other directory sites around, but they aren’t as easy to browse and navigate. Lots of them are mirror sites, too, so you will get the exact same results even though the site name and layout look different.)
Real haunted houses are another Halloween treat. Sometimes they get a lot more exciting around this time of year… but is it because the veil between the living and the dead is lifted on Halloween, or because we get wrapped up in the ethereal mood? What do you think?
For families and those seeking fun that also celebrates Autumn, you’ll want to find a pumpkin patch. You don’t even have to buy a pumpkin- we almost never do- to have a good time. There are a lot of outdoorsy activities like hay rides and corn mazes that are worth checking out. Large pumpkin patches or farms will also sometimes have events with music, rides, and food.
Don’t feel like going out? That’s why you pay the cable bill! Get a bowl of popcorn and park yourself in front of the boo tube for the remainder of the scary movies and Halloween episodes on TV. Perplexingly enough, AOL offers free streams of Halloween episodes from years gone by such as the Beetlejuice cartoon and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. YouTube has a lot of those episodes as well, but usually broken down into 3 different files. For full length movies, Lycos Cinema offers 70 horror films that you can also watch for free.
How will you be spending the next few days? What are you doing on The Big Day?
Blog updates have been a little sporadic lately because we’ve been slaving away in our dungeon creating pages such as the List of Top Scary Movies.
Like we mentioned earlier, October is obviously the month when everyone wants to watch lots of scary movies. We’ve made it quick to find the scary movie you’re in the mood for by breaking them up into easy to scan categories. What are my favorite categories you ask? Thanks for asking. I tend to search through the Zombies and Horror Comedy first, but it’s hard to go through October without watching a few Cult Classics.
This list is big, but by no means exhaustive. We need your opinions on what you think should be added to the list! We will definitely update it throughout the year, so please leave a comment with your suggestions.
Whether you like em’ gory or silly, chances are you have some favorite “scary movies”. The ones you break out every Halloween season or just when you need a freaky mid-year fix. The ones that chill your blood and/or make you roar with laughter. We’ve already shared our favorites in the 
I love horror movies. Always have. From the time I was old enough to watch them (which was a lot younger then I would admit to my parents). As I got older I came to appreciate the classics as well as some of the new ones that came out. However, as a young man 
Since Halloween falls on a Wednesday, we might be tempted to throw in the towel after the last weekend of partying and spend the next few days thinking ahead to other holidays. That’s just crazy talk. 
